1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed in general to data processing systems. In one aspect, the present invention relates to system resource management in a data processing system that employs more than one partition.
2. Description of the Related Art
In data processing systems, the physical or hardware resources may be divided into resource subsets or logical partitions which virtually operate as a separate computer, where each partition typically contains a processor core and other specified resources or specified portions of a resource such as memory within the system. Existing partitioning strategies of replicating all the required hardware on a per-processor basis does not scale past a small number of multi-threaded processors because of the increased requirements for die area, wiring, and system memory, as well as the attendant system memory management issues. Partitioned systems also present challenges in determining, for a received access request, which partition, if any, is to respond to the access request. For example, when a request to access a system resource is received, access permission is typically determined based on attributes associated with the request, but the hardware and processing requirements associated with this process can be very significant.
Accordingly, a need exists for an improved system and methodology for managing system resources in a partitioned data processing system that address various problems in the art where various limitations and disadvantages of conventional solutions and technologies will become apparent to one of skill in the art after reviewing the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings and detailed description which follow, though it should be understood that this description of the related art section is not intended to serve as an admission that the described subject matter is prior art.